Modern consumers typically receive information and telecommunications through a multiplicity of communications channels from multiple providers. For example, entertainment and news via analog via radio and television broadcast which are captured via a conventional antenna and receiver system or delivered over a cable and telephone delivered via a “twisted pair” (often referred to as a plain old telephone system or POTS). Additionally, consumers are receiving digital telecommunications in the form of electronic mail or “e-mail” via a service provider connected to a public network such as the Internet, which may also deliver information of a wide variety upon request from the consumer, and provided by a myriad of information sources also connected to the network. This network of information providers and information consumers communicating via the Internet is commonly referred to as the World Wide Web (“WWW”) The consumer's portal for digital data communications, such as might be communicated on the Internet might include an analog modem coupled to the POTS, a cable modem which may provide either unidirectional or bidirectional data transfer between a consumer's personal computer and an Internet gateway, or a digital subscriber line which provides higher bandwidth with digital communications over the same “twisted pair” that delivers telephone services to the consumer. Additionally, media, such as television and radio broadcast, that have traditionally been delivered in analog mode are increasingly being piped to the consumer in digital form, such as direct broadcast satellite television and radio.
Typically, these multiple data streams are delivered to the consumer via a corresponding interface which serves a single consumer appliance. Thus, for example, an individual personal computer may be connected to the Internet service provider (ISP) via an analog modem connected to a telephone line, which modem delivers digital data from the Internet to the personal computer. Television signals, either from a digital source such as direct broadcast satellite, or television from an analog source, such as terrestrial broadcast are received through their own corresponding portals, a conventional television receiver, or a satellite dish and satellite receiver, and delivered to the consumer via a “set-top box” converter and conventional television display. Alternatively, the audio/video media, such as television and radio, may be delivered through a cable television hookup via a set-top box that interfaces a conventional television receiver to the cable communications channel. Each conventional television receiver, or radio receiver must be equipped with its own set-top box that provides the interface between the conventional equipment and the delivery channel. Furthermore, certain of the entertainment services, particularly those delivered by other than terrestrial broadcast means, may provide services that require the consumer to pay additional subscription costs or other fees. These streams must be delivered in a secure form, and the interface, or set top-box, must also include conditional access mechanisms to limit the access to these services only to those consumers that are authorized to receive them. Thus, a consumer who wishes to use or receive these services on a conventional television, at for example, each of several locations is required to have a set top interface equipped with the necessary controlled access mechanisms in conjunction with each of the locations. In other words, the consumer of a multiplicity of entertainment and data streams received over a corresponding multiplicity of communication channels, must replicate the interfaces between the communication channels and the corresponding consumer hardware at each location within the consumer's locale at which the consumer wishes to use the data, or view and hear the entertainment, as appropriate. Furthermore, the interface equipment that must be replicated at each such location may embody a significant measure of technical sophistication, with a corresponding expense to the consumer. Thus, there is a need in the art for an apparatus and method to integrate the delivery of multiple information streams, which may include audio/video streams received in both digital and analog formats, and bidirectional digital data exchanged between a consumer's personal computers and a multiplicity of internetworked provider system and which may be delivered to the users locale via one or more, possibly distinct, digital communication channels.